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Timeline of US Imperialism
Content Warning: This article contains extensive discussion and description of torture, rape, murder and genocide Note: We acknowledge that occasionally, US Imperialism CAN have benefits (for instance, killing Nazis) and we do not support all groups opposed to US Imperialism. The US is also not behind every event in global politics, they are an empire but not omnipotent. However, we strongly condemn US Imperialism as most of it leads to loss of life and the underdevelopment of countries, condemning hundreds of millions to a life of poverty. A timeline of the actions taken by the United States Government in order to secure greater power and wealth at the expense of people, both its own and abroad. We include authoritarian regimes and dictatorships supported by the US, coups supported by the US, interference in elections, invasions, suppression of rebellions (domestic and abroad), bombing campaigns and support for terrorist or guerilla groups. Actions against piracy and retaliation against states that the declared war on the US are not included on this list, except in situations where the US used it for imperialist gains or lied to their population. 1900s * 1915: The US invades and occupies Haiti in order to capture its wealth and prevent the expansion of the German Empire into Latin America. Numerous abuses of the Haitian population by US soldiers occur, including the rape of thousands of Haitian women. * 1929: The US begins supporting the authoritarian government in Mexico, support is maintained for the next 71 years. * 1948: The US begins supporting South Africa during Apartheid, a brutal system of white supremacy and racial segregation that killed around 21,000 people. It also criminalised homosexuality, abortion, sex education, gambling, pornography, prostitution and selling alcohol on sundays. * 1963: (Alleged) The US helps politicians in Canada to take down the prime minister over his refusal to station US nuclear missiles in the country and being too independent in terms of foreign policy.Wikipedia - CIA Activities in Canada * 1964: The US supports (and according to some sources, organises) a far-right military coup in Brazil, toppling a democratic, centre-left government and ensuring Brazil is run as a dictatorship for the next 21 years. To extinguish its left-wing opponents, the dictatorship used arbitrary arrests, imprisonment without trials, kidnapping, and most of all, torture, which included rape and castration. The military government murdered hundreds of others, although this was done mostly in secret and the cause of death often falsely reported as accidental. The government occasionally dismembered and hid the bodies. The new government (although initially successful in developing the country) soon became riddled with massive debt and hyper-inflation. * 1965: The US and Britain help organise and support the Indonesian Mass Killings by providing the Indonesian army (many of whom had collaborated with the Japanese Empire) with weapons, information and other support in order to wipe out the powerful Indonesian left, that was pushing various places for land reform, workers' control and trade with the USSR. Between 500,000 and 3,000,000 people had been killed (0.4 to 2.8% of the population) and the CIA secretly compared it to the Holocaust and the Red Terrors in China and Russia. ** Killing methods included shooting, stabbing, beheadings, impaling, disemboweling, cutting off people's limbs and letting them bleed to death, strangling and castration (forced removal or disfiguring of genitals). ** Killing devices included assault rifles, small arms, knives, sickles, machetes, swords, ice picks, bamboo spears, iron rods and other makeshift weapons. ** Both men and women were subjected to sexual violence while in prisons, including rape and electric shocks to the genitals. ** Torture methods included severe beatings with makeshift materials like electric cable and large pieces of wood, breaking fingers and crushing toes and feet under the legs of tables and chairs, pulling out fingernails, electric shocks, and burning with molten rubber or cigarettes. Detainees were sometimes forced to watch or listen to the torture of others, including relatives such as spouses or children. ** Mass looting and burning down of pro-communist villages after killings. ** Many of the killings had a distinctly racist nature against Chinese, Abangans and Atheist minorities in Indonesia. ** The killings enabled the New Order regime to come to power, which has been considered one of the most corrupt governments in human history and paved the way for genocides in Timor-Leste and West Papua. * 1973: The US organises economic warfare and a military coup in Chile, South America's most stable democracy, in order to take down the elected socialist government that had nationalised the mining sector.Wikipedia - 1973 Chilean coup d'état The new military dictatorship destroyed the economy, leaving the country deep in poverty and killing between 2,000 and 30,000 people, 27,000 people being tortured and survived) and 200,000 people were forced into exile (mainly to Argentina). In other words, 2.2% of Chile's population (of 10.1 million) had their lives ended or ruined by the dictatorship. Some notable torture and killing methods include: ** Electrocution of open wounds and the genitals on a person tied up on a metal bed. ** Arresting entire families if a single member had leftist sympathies, and forcing family members to watch soldiers rape other members of their family, in other situations, families or close friends would have to listen to their beloved being tortured. ** Forcing prisoners to crawl on the ground and lick the dirt off the floors. If the prisoners complained or even collapsed from exhaustion, they were promptly executed. ** Forcing prisoners to swim in vats of excrement (shit) and eat and drink it. ** Forcing prisoners to stay awake for five days while lying down, threatening to kill their children if they didn't. ** Forcing prisoners to lie down and driving trucks and cars over their arms and legs, crushing their bones. ** Beating prisoners to the point that they'd either be deaf from being hit on the ears or have broken arms and legs, occasionally, amputation would be used as a torture technique. ** Pouring water over a cloth that covered prisons' faces and breathing passages, causing individuals to experience a drowning sensation, and a near-death experience and killing many through asphyxiation. ** Prisoners were hung upside-down with ropes, and they were dropped into a tank of water, headfirst. The water was contaminated (with poisonous chemicals, shit and piss) and filled with debris. ** Anal rape of prisoners by soldiers while soldiers insulted them to break their spirit. ** Using dogs to rape prisoners and inserting rats into prisoners anuses and vaginas. ** Forcing female prisoners to engage in sex with their brothers and fathers at gunpoint. ** Throwing dissidents from helicopters into the ocean, rivers, lakes or mountains where they would be instantly killed (and spend the last seconds of their live in absolute terror) and their bodies never found. This method of torture is continuously joked about in online right-wing spaces as their 'joking' plan for leftists. ** Left many victims reported suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, isolation, worthlessness, shame, anxiety and hopelessness. * 1975: (Alleged) The US helps politicians in Australia to take down the prime minister over his desire to close a US military base violating its contract in Australia and to nationalise Australia's mining sector, it is alleged by one source that the CIA controls most trade unions, banks and political parties in Australia.Wikipedia - 1975 Australian constitutional crisis * 1986: (Alleged) The US helps organise the assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, as part of their opposition to social democracy and Olof's outspoken support for the ANC. * 1987: The US (alongside France, Libya and Israel) supports a coup that takes out the socialist government in Burkina Faso. This contributes to a reversal in women's rights, ecological destruction, increased poverty and less access to key services like healthcare and education.Wikipedia - 1987 Burkinabé coup d'état * 1994: The US begins to aid Mexico in the Chiapas Conflict (by training soldiers and death squads, as well as supplying guns, tanks, helicopters and fighter jets)guidetoaction.org - U.S. Military Involvement in Mexico's Quagmire Deepens who are aimed at destroying the libertarian socialist EZLN and taking over their autonomous areas that are international symbols of feminism, environmentalism and indigenism. Around 1600 people have been killed in the conflict and numerous acts of state terrorism and rape of women are carried out.NACLA - The Escalation of the War in Chiapas 2000s * 2001: The US invades Afghanistan. * 2002: The US attempts to overthrow the government of Venezuela. * 2003: The US invades Iraq. * 2009: The US overthrows the government of Honduras. 2010s * 2012: The US begins to assist the rebels in the Syrian Civil War, secretly supplying money, weaponry and training to rebel forces. The program leads to a flooding of assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades into Middle East's black market.Wikipedia - Timber Sycamore * 2014: The US begins to deploy airstrikes and soldiers in the Syrian Civil War.Wikipedia - American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War * 2015: The US begins to assist Saudi Arabia and the government of Yemen in their civil war. The US sends hundreds of elite soldiers (Green Berets) and massive amounts of funding, equipment and training to their favoured side, this massively prolongs the conflict.Wikipedia - Yemeni Civil War (2015–present) * 2019: The US attempts to overthrow the government of Venezuela. References Category:USA Category:Libertarian Socialist Wiki Category:North America Category:Timelines Category:US Imperialism